Avalanche Season

Since being sidelined with knee and thumb injuries from my first epic wreck in a few years, I've been forced to sit in quiet contemplation as the snow reports keep rolling into my email. It kills me not to be able to enjoy what is turning out to be a pretty good early-season run of snow dumps, especially since both of your esteemed 13S bloggers are now at best partially employed...

But this has given me time to contemplate the risks involved with living life as a proud Wookiee. Going back to this year's first backcountry run, I've been shocked at the number of people with that same itch to get out on unmanaged snow. Even 4 weeks ago, Loveland Pass was so crowded that it was approaching on-piste in terms of being tracked out and crowded. Though it may not be the most backcountry spot out there, I think there're a lot of folks out there (myself included were I out there today) who are not adequately prepared for what the wild mountains can do to the unsuspecting.

There have been some good dumps these past few days/weeks, and the common inclination is to get out there and rip it. These dumps bring with them, however, a VERY increased risk of unstable snow and (in all likelihood) slides. The more seasoned among us are probably saying, "Loveland Pass isn't really backcountry". And while I wouldn't necessarily disagree that it's easily accessible even without any hiking, it's still unmanaged terrain. Slides can kill whether you're 1000 feet from a paved road or 10 miles. It's with this in mind that I encourage anybody with The Itch to get themselves some education on the subject. The best piece of equipment any of us have is sitting on top of our shoulders. And I get the feeling that there's a lot of folks out there that forget that equipment when they head out in the morning.

Information is readily available to provide basic avalanche recognition and awareness. The most concise I've seen can be found at http://classic.mountainzone.com/features/avalanche/. A few moments spent researching could save you trouble down the road. Get in the mindframe of evaluating snow and your line through it before stepping off. Can't tell you how many idiots I've seen inspecting the top of a shaky cornice. I say idiots and not rookies because I've seen plenty of "seasoned" backcountry vets who don't know the first thing about safety and wise risk-taking.

With no formal education myself, the plan this year is to attend a 3 day AIARE Level I class, to get familiar with the basics of recognizing avalanche terrain, and recovering a buddy should the unfortunate happen (unthinkable is the first word that came to mind, but it is entirely inappropriate to get into that mindset). All classes accredited by the American Avalanche Association or AIARE will have the same basic requirements and benefits, which be reviewed here: http://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/guidelines1.html or http://avtraining.org/Avalanche-Training-Courses/.

After some light research here's what seems to be available in terms of Denver-area classes:

http://www.boc123.com/ Boulder Outdoor Center offers classes in Boulder and Littleton with on-snow instructions up in RMNP. Very appealing in that the class is conducted on shoes instead of sticks and boards. Also the BOC offers a $40 rental on all required gear (shoes, beacon, shovel, probe).

http://www.totalclimbing.com/ Total Climbing offers courses in conjunction with the Colorado Avalanche School.

http://www.adventurecentral.com/ Renaissance Guides offers a class with the bonus of making some turns the same day. If that's your cup of tea.

You'll find plenty more with a quick search of your own. All are in the range of $300 for the 3 day course, which typically includes 1 or 2 nights of classes, followed by 2 days of avalanche instruction on the snow. A small price to pay for training that could save your life, or help you save someone else's.

In the end, my plea to those brave souls is to BE SMART. Slides can happen anywhere at any time but a risk/reward assessment should be the first step to any day out of bounds. 10 inches of new snow at this time of year should be a deterrent, not a push factor. At the very least, if you've absolutely got to get some tracks, do yourself a favor and check the avalanche risk for the day at http://avalanche.state.co.us. I'm just like any of you in that I want to be out there on top of that fresh pow. But I'd much rather be here in my cubie dreaming of a fresh foot than buried beneath it.